Sunak’s decision to scrap HS2 to Manchester is ‘another betrayal of …
Rishi Sunak was tonight told his decision to scrap the HS2 link to Manchester was “yet another betrayal of the North”.
In his party conference speech in Manchester, he sounded the death knell for levelling up, confirming that HS2 would only go to Birmingham. Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said the decision would “punish passengers and businesses alike”.
The scrapping of the northern HS2 link was attacked from all sides of the political divide yesterday, with Tory ex-PM David Cameron[1], saying Rishi Sunak’s decision was “wrong”. The line will now run between Euston not Old Oak Common, as feared and Birmingham, but there will be no Manchester link .
Mr Cameron said it trashed 15 years of cross-party consensus and showed Britain was incapable of acting for the long-term good. He said: “Today’s announcement… will make it much harder to build consensus for any future long-term projects. I suspect many will look back at today’s announcement and wonder how this once-in-a-generation opportunity was lost.”
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said northern leaders had not been consulted over the Tories’ incoherent transport plan, announced in the city. He said: “This city region was entitled to more respect.”
In his conference speech, Mr Sunak tried to soften the HS2 blow by re-announcing road and rail projects the Tories had promised but failed to deliver, though he included the construction of a tram link to Manchester Airport which opened in 2014. Mr Sunak said axing the northern HS2 link and changes to the project to build thousands of houses around Euston station would save £36billion.
He pledged to “reinvest every single penny… in hundreds of new transport projects in the North and the Midlands, across the country”. He would upgrade the A1, A2, A5 and M6 despite these previously announced road plans being delayed by up to five years only six months ago by him.
Mr Sunak said he would fund the Shipley Bypass in West Yorkshire, and the Blyth Relief Road in Northumberland, both touted five years ago and still to happen. He also promised to improve rail journeys between Manchester and Liverpool and build a new station in Bradford, all part of Northern Powerhouse Rail before it was ditched. He also announced the end of A-Levels, and the phasing-out of smoking.
The PM also claimed that after 13 years of Tory rule voters would be choosing change if they backed him at the next general election[2]. He said 30 years of broken politics had led leaders to make the “easy decision, not the right one”.
He promised “A government prepared to make long-term decisions so that we can build a brighter future for everyone”. Mr Sunak said: “It is time for a change. And we are it.”
Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden said: “Rishi Sunak’s desperate attempt to reset his weak leadership and divided government won’t fool the British public, who are looking at Tory failures all around them. The Tories have let Britain down for too long. They cannot be the change from their own failures. The damage they would do with five more years would be intolerable for working people.”
It emerged last night that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt[3] threw his weight behind HS2 in 2020, when he posted: “No HS2 = no ambition for the country.”
The Government later said that its document of transport pledges should have stated that the Metrolink tram line will be extended to a second terminal at Manchester Airport.
* Follow Mirror Politics on Snapchat, Tiktok, Twitter and Facebook
References
- ^ David Cameron (www.mirror.co.uk)
- ^ general election (www.mirror.co.uk)
- ^ Jeremy Hunt (www.mirror.co.uk)